SOMERSWORTH — Paul Robidas said Friday he finds it hard to believe something inappropriate was done to the vote tallies during the charter commission elections, and City Clerk Diane Dubois agrees.

Charter panel hopeful John Joyal called Wednesday for a recount of Tueday's votes due to suspicions he has of the "+1" that was added next to candidate Paul Robidas' name after the votes were tallied, bringing their votes to a tie at 199. Dubois subsequently drew a name from a container to determine Robidas as the winner of the ninth seat on the charter commission.

Joyal was told the extra vote was a write-in from Ward 4, but he questioned where it came from, why the Ward 4 write-in tallies weren't changed on the vote report to reflect that additional vote and why only Robidas — "the guy who's tied with me" — was affected by the write-in.

Dubois has answers for all his questions.

She explained Friday the extra vote was, "per say," a write-in. She said it came from a ballot that the machine in Ward 4 couldn't read properly so it was kicked over to a separate compartment in the machine to be hand counted.

Dubois said while she didn't see the ballot first-hand that was separated, the machine generally separates ballots when an oval next to a candidate's name isn't completely filled in.

Write-in tallies, she explained, are calculated by the machine and don't record the names so the write-in vote on the separated ballot would have been part of Ward 4's nine write-ins, not one that would need to be added after it was given to Robidas.

As for why only Robidas was affected by a write-in vote, Dubois said there are other write-in votes for candidates but at that moment she had only been looking for either Robidas' or Joyal's names because their totals were the closest and any change would affect the outcome of the election.

"John and Paul were the only two names that were really close," she said. "We don't even look at the write-ins until later on unless they are going to affect something."

However, Joyal wondered, "Why go looking for another vote if the tallies are done?"

Joyal also questioned the process of his and Robidas' names being drawn, as he didn't get to see his name written on the paper before it was picked.

While Robidas supports Joyal's right to a recount — and said he may have requested one himself if he'd lost in a vote that close — he doesn't think anything underhanded occurred during the vote tallies and the drawing of names.

"I'm not sure how the process works, but for them to slip a name in; I would find that hard to believe," he said. "(Joyal) was there before it was drawn, he was there after it was drawn; he could have asked to see his name. I didn't actually study the piece of paper but again, I can't imagine (Dubois) put my name on both of those papers."

Dubois said she hopes people know her well enough to know she wouldn't tamper with election results and also maintains she showed Joyal and Robidas the papers with their names on them before they were drawn.

City Manager Bob Belmore was also present for the entire process.

Dave Witham, who was also elected to the commission, said he wasn't surprised by the request for the recount and actually expected it because of it being a 33-candidate race with nine winners.

"I suppose there always is a possibility there was an error and requesting a recount is within John's prerogative," he said, adding the "+1" addition on the vote tally sheet did look odd but he would need to know how vote tallies had been handled in other elections to know whether it was anything to be concerned about.

Alan Marquis, who ran for the commission but didn't win a seat, said "something doesn't smell right" about the election, most of all the fact that so many candidates were in the clerk's office as results were coming in. He said there may be rules about "certain distances" candidates need to maintain during that time and he will be looking into it.

Marquis also didn't agree with drawing a name to break the tie.

"If you think about it, all those people who voted, their votes don't count," he said. He did say it's still just speculation that something wasn't done right but hopes it will "come clean" because "it isn't fair to the people who ran."

Robidas said he's surprised Joyal is suggesting something happened to affect the vote totals, but Joyal said he is just trying to play fair.

"I'm not crying over spilled milk here," Joyal said. "I just want to make sure things were done fairly and equitably."

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